Gurugram polls: Uphill battle for Aarti Rao in Ateli Assembly constituency

Parvesh Sharma

Gurugram, Sep 22 (IANS) A triangular contest is expected this time in Haryana's Ateli assembly constituency where most likely political legacy and caste equations can affect the election result.  

This time in Ateli, all eyes will be on BJP's candidate Aarti Rao, who is the daughter of six-time MP and Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh.

Aarti Rao is contesting her maiden election which is no less than a litmus test for her. It remains to be seen whether she can carry forward the legacy of her father, who was the most prominent Ahirwal leader of this region.

Meanwhile, Congress has fielded former MLA Anita Yadav against Aarti Rao and another Ahir community leader. Anita Yadav won this seat on a Congress ticket in 2009, but she faced consecutive defeats in 2014 and 2019 from BJP candidates.

Political experts said that despite losing the last two elections, the Congress party has fielded Anita again as the BJP is facing an anti-incumbency wave and Anita Yadav can attract the votes of the Ahir community.

Meanwhile, the locals called Aarti Rao as an “outsider”. They alleged that Rao doesn't even know the village names of the constituency. She is active here in Ateli just to woo voters.

"Aarti Rao is fighting the elections in her father's name. She was not active earlier in the constituency. We know that she will leave the area after the elections are over," a resident alleged.

The election battle has been made more interesting by INLD-BSP alliance candidate Thakur Atar Lal. An experienced politician, Atar Lal has been contesting elections in Ateli for the last two decades, but he has not been able to win yet.

Rajput voters are 8 per cent in Ateli, but INLD's pre-poll alliance with BSP can give Atar Lal a chance to woo the 28 per cent Scheduled Caste (SC) vote bank.

In the last assembly elections, BJP had fielded Sitaram Yadav from the Ateli seat, who got 55,793 votes. On the other hand, BSP candidate Atar Lal was in second place with 37,837 votes. Ateli is considered a stronghold of the BJP. In the 2014 election, the party's Santosh Yadav easily won this seat.

Atar Lal is known for being connected with the voters at the grassroots level. Due to his active presence in Ateli, he also has the support of some Ahir voters.

The Ateli seat has a high percentage of voters in the rural areas while a good number of Dalit votes are also there due to which BSP is also a factor.

--IANS

str/dan